Three men and one woman were arrested during yesterday's spirited protests against the tuition hikes that were passed by the CUNY Board of Trustees. According to the NYPD, those arrested faced varying charges of reckless endangerment, harassment, and disorderly conduct outside a Baruch College building, where hundreds of protesters had gathered as the meeting itself became closed to the public. "Money does affect me," a CUNY sophomore tells Baruch's newspaper, the Ticker. "I have two jobs…Tuition is hard for me, I pay it by month and every dollar counts." more ›

[Updates below] Several hundred protesters are currently marching near Baruch College at 24th Street at Lexington Avenue to demonstrate against the planned $300/year (over five years) tuition hikes that the City University Board of Trustees is expected to vote on this afternoon, as well as a need for "democratic accountability." There's a heavy NYPD presence, with police on scooters attempting to funnel the demonstrators into barricaded areas and off the street. more ›

Baruch College's afternoon classes (after 3 p.m.) are cancelled because the City University Board of Trustees is voting on tuitions hikes—$300/year for five years—and CUNY officials are concerned about another clash between protesting students and campus police. Still, students are taking the time to rally at 4 p.m., to criticize last week's chaotic confrontation as well as the hikes, "They make tuition increases over the summer knowing many students are not on campus, they continue to increase tuition, while cutting, resources (closing libraries, writing centers, etc), they have public meetings where students and faculty are denied admittance, then are beaten for attempting to peacefully assemble and have a voice." more ›

The Medgar Evers sex scandal gets bigger today, as a second dean named in an anonymous email to the school's top brass speaks out against the claims made in the lurid letter. This time, though, the dean says one of her own colleagues made the offensive comments first. more ›

A CUNY department chair who was fired from the university is going after Yahoo to give up the name of the student who sent scandalous emails to the school's brass. Dr. Zulema Blair claims that she was fired from her job in the Public Administration department of CUNY's Medgar Evers College following an anonymous email from a student claiming she was having sex with students and had a student's baby. more ›

The sun has many uses, from giving us cool-looking cancer spots to frying those pesky ants beneath our magnifying glasses (plus Solar Hits!) But what if we harnessed it to give your ConEd bill a giant, phototropic finger? A solar map of New York City released today by CUNY reveals that 66 percent of the city's rooftops could be used to harness solar power, generating enough energy to fulfill half of the city's electricity needs at peak periods. Yes, but will it be enough to keep the juice flowing to the dozens of spaceheaters powering our illicit beef jerky drying operation (and those other LED lamps in the basement that are just there for decoration)? more ›

A week after Tony Kushner's honorary degree from John Jay College was halted by the CUNY Board of Trustees (because of Kushner's stance on Middle East politics), the board's executive committee gave it right back last night. The decision, which concluded a less-than-30 minute meeting where board members expressed displeasure with the way the situation had unfolded, comes after tremendous political pressure was put on the school. Explained trustee Kathleen M. Pesile yesterday, “we are now correcting it because it benefits CUNY and we will not get another chance to remove this blemish.” more ›

Blood libel is back in the news! The furor over the CUNY Board of Trustees decision to table an honorary degree for the playwright Tony Kushner shows no sign of abating. Since trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld persuaded his peers to side against Kushner earlier this week CUNY has sort-of apologized but Weisenfeld has not backed down. Instead he has gone on a media phone tour in which he has decried Kushner's perceived "blood-libel charge" that Israel has engaged in ethnic-cleansing and told a Times reporter that he didn't know what he was talking about. And now CUNY is considering changing its mind again and giving the degree to Kushner after all! more ›

This spring CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice was supposed to award an honorary degree to the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. But that plan has been tabled by the CUNY Board of Trustees after one member expressed concerns over anti-Israel beliefs he believed that Kushner had espoused, the Jewish Week reports. more ›

Dozens of protesters were arrested yesterday afternoon outside the Albany office of Governor Andrew Cuomo, where they were angrily protesting cuts to CUNY's senior and community campuses proposed in Cuomo's slasher-flick budget. As a "sizable" State Police contingent looked on, some 150 demonstrators marched in a circle in the Senate corridors outside the office, chanting, "Tax the rich, not the poor, stop the war on unions!" Video below: more ›

Among the many things in Andrew Cuomo's new budget are some hefty cuts into the State and City University of New York funds, which has educators and students from both institutions nervous. At a joint Assembly and Senate fiscal hearing yesterday reps from both spoke out against the cuts (which Cuomo insists can be handled without a tuition hike) and asked the legislature again for the authority to control their own tuitions. more ›

There's no shortage of news reports about would-be pedophiles getting busted by undercover cops posing as minors on the Internet. So why do these men keep falling for it? Because they are sick puppies who just can't help themselves, we suppose. The latest alleged perv is an adjunct professor of economics at several city universities named Igor Sorkin. Prosecutors say [pdf] Sorkin, 31, sent sexually explicit messages and photos of his genitals to a vice officer posing as a 14-year-old girl online. He was arrested Tuesday when he tried to meet up with this fictional teen in Queens, and faces up to seven years in prison. But was the feedback Sorkin's received on Rate My Professors a red flag? more ›

Starting September 2012, smoking will be verboten throughout CUNY, the nation's largest urban public university. Last night the trustees voted to ban smoking on all 23 campuses, a decision that will affect some students more than others, because many of the schools don't actually have campuses in the traditional sense. But as the Times notes, the campuses of City College, Queens College, College of Staten Island and Lehman College, among others, will see the air clear. more ›

Like hundreds of other universities across the country, CUNY is poised to become almost entirely smoke-free. The Board of Trustees will meet today to vote on a plan to prohibit smoking from all 23 CUNY campuses; currently smoking is only banned inside buildings and CUNY vehicles. In addition, all tobacco industry promotions, advertising, marketing, and distribution would be prohibited on campus properties, and tobacco industry sponsorship of athletic events and athletes would be prohibited. Of course, some students call this discrimination. more ›

An honors student from Nigeria who was studying at Brooklyn College says that a school psychologist forcibly committed her to Kings County Psychiatric Hospital (not a nice place) for two weeks when she sought advice about a hidden camera her landlord installed in her bedroom. Of course, it's not uncommon for people with mental illnesses to believe they are under surveillance, but in Chinemerem Eze's case, it happened to be true! Just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you, as the poet sings—unfortunately for Eze, her college shrink wasn't familiar with Kurt Cobain, and she got locked up. Now she's suing the school. more ›

Ex-CUNY professor Victoria Ying believes someone at City Tech was out to get her when she was fired a few years ago. In a lawsuit filed in the Brooklyn federal court, Ying says she was falsely accused of having sex with a student. It all started in 2006, when a student in her second-year Anatomy and Physiology class allegedly asked her the sexually-loaded question, "What is an artery?" more ›

Yesterday, CUNY announced that it was cutting off its freshmen applications starting tomorrow because of record enrollment. Historically, students have been able to apply to CUNY through the summer. City Room reports, "It is the first time in memory that CUNY will impose an across-the-board cutoff for applications to its 11 senior colleges and six community colleges... by late April, CUNY had already received 69,220 freshmen applications for the fall, 26 percent more than the number submitted through mid-July of 2008." CUNY spokesman Michael Arena said, "We're being inundated with applications. We're at a point where we need to manage our resources so we can provide the quality students have come to expect." more ›

Students and professors at CUNY Law School are questioning why their institution is shelling out $155 million for a new building in Long Island City, when similar ones with far lower pricetags are available in Manhattan. Again and again they've inquired about the city-funded purchase of a six-floor building at 2 Court Square—a property owned by Citibank—but the administration repeats the same refrain: that the price “is far less than it would have cost CUNY to construct a new building for the Law School, which an independent architectural firm estimated would be $250 million.” Real estate professionals agree the transaction is suspect. “I think it’s a great deal for Citibank, obviously,” said one knowledgeable broker. more ›

CUNY isn't just the perfect setting for racist shouting matches and questions of diversity among its faculty; it's also a very popular destination for transfer students! For its upcoming fall 2010 semester, CUNY has received more than 16,000 transfer applications from students at other schools, an increase of 77.5 percent compared to last year. This may be because CUNY only charges $4,600 at the four-year schools and $3,150 at the two-year colleges, according to the Post. CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson seems to agree, telling the tabloid, "Affordability plus an enhanced CUNY reputation . . . simply trumps going into debt." Sure, but do cool bands like Man Man play at CUNY? more ›

According to a new study, if all the first-time voters that helped elect Obama had cast their ballots in the November mayoral election, Democrat Bill Thompson might be sitting in Bloomberg's seat. "Bill Thompson only lost by 50,000 votes," CUNY Prof. John Mollenkopf told the News. "If only 50% of new voters came out, Thompson would be mayor. ... Here was a chance to knock off an incumbent mayor, to elect the second black mayor in New York history. If they had mobilized, it would have been huge, huge, huge news." Unfortunately the newly political set was hung over after the excitement of Obama's win. Only about one in five of them even showed up for the mayoral election—71,335 out of 338,128 whose votes were counted in the presidential tally. Maybe next time? more ›

"White, black and Hispanic undergraduates each comprise more than a quarter of the student body, and Asians account for more than 15%," said CUNY Vice Chancellor Gloriana Waters recently. The school loves to boast about its Crayola box student body, but faculty members come mostly in white. At a recent hearing on staff diversity, or the lack thereof, council members complained that of the university's 7,214 faculty members, only 12.3 percent are black, 8.3 percent are Hispanic and 10.5 percent are Asian, reports the Daily News. more ›

The Daily News reports on a disturbing CUNY report: "During their first math class at one of CUNY's four-year colleges, 90% of 200 students tested couldn't solve a simple algebra problem...Only a third could convert a fraction into a decimal. The lack of math skills means the CUNY students - nearly 70% of which come from city schools - could struggle to keep up with peers, fail classes or even drop out, the professors charged." City College Professor Stanley Ocken said, "These results are shocking. They show that a disturbing proportion of New York City high school graduates lack basic skills." more ›

An audit by the State Comptroller's Office has found that five CUNY colleges failed to report 73 percent of the felonies that occurred on their campuses, as required by law. The most ironic offender? John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which failed to report 19 of its 20 felonies. more ›

The move by Stella D'oro to close its Bronx bakery after a judge ordered its striking union workers reinstated is raising questions about the strength of unions in today's economy. With tough times all around, it seems unions are facing uphill battles to get public support. A NY Times story today on the strike's aftermath includes an interview with CUNY history professor Joshua B. Freeman, who notes, "A lot of people are hurting right now, and sometimes you look at someone else and they have a job and they’re resisting making a concession and you think, ‘These people seem to be sitting pretty, what are they complaining about?’" Indeed, the Stella D'oro strikers had a hard time even getting noticed—as the Daily News observes today, "news media virtually ignored the story of this largely immigrant workforce. In a town that prides itself as the heart of organized labor, the other unions were AWOL." While unions may be suffering in the economic climate, the workers appear to be bearing the brunt of this harsher labor environment. Stella D'oro worker Richard Pererira, 51, sums it up for the Times this way: "I feel cheated...All these years we worked so hard, and now they want to shut us down. That’s horrible." more ›

It's time to run down the various commencement speakers around town—please let us know about others in comments (or email us at tips[at] gothamist[dot]com). This Wednesday, New York University will have its commencement at Yankee Stadium—and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give the commencement address. Clinton will also be the commencement speaker at Barnard College's ceremony next Monday. more ›

The NY Times reports the City University of New York has developed a "120-page blueprint for the community college of the future—specifically, a 5,000-student Manhattan campus that would be New York City’s first new two-year institution of higher education in 37 years." Because graduation rates at community colleges are low, the blueprint would require students to enroll full time, with "Majors would be limited to about a dozen fields with robust job opportunities, including health care and environmental technology." CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein says that the community college “capacity will be severely tested in the coming year" (CUNY 2-year college enrollment is up 31%) and CUNY, facing cuts from city and state budgets (leading to proposed tuition hikes), is trying to raise money from other sources, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. more ›

As a way to help struggling New Yorkers, the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, City University of New York and Daily News are offering a week of free financial advice. The Your Money Helpline has more than 200 experts who will be able to answer topics like, "How to cope with credit card debt," "How to get financing for education," and "How to deal with mortgage problems." The Daily News says the experts come from "the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment, banks and credit unions, financial industry associations and participants, city agencies, CUNY's business, finance, and economics faculty, staff and student financial aid experts and other trained volunteers." Call 212-330-6505 for help in English and 212-330-6506 for help in Spanish. more ›